6 months later -
After spending longer than she was supposed to in Brighton due to the accident, Sophie was finally rushing back to London. After saying her goodbyes to everyone the night before, she had made her way back at an extremely early time the next morning.
As much as she had been looking forward to going back, she had also been a bit reluctant to leave. She was worried about Jess and Jack and was worried about leaving them to deal with the amnesia alone.
She was also gutted to be leaving her friends after spending so much time with them and her goodbyes with Aaron and Corey had also been odd after everything that had happened.
After spending time with Aaron one night, the pair had got into the biggest argument the next day. Aaron had suggested they went for a drive somewhere to talk but when she arrived at his apartment at the time he suggested, Carla had been there.
Clearly, Aaron had not been expecting Carla to show up but the fact that she did put things into perspective for Sophie. She didn't exactly know what she was doing and why she was doing it but she knew it wasn't right.
She had been taking nights out from her friends or Corey to spend time with Aaron with slight hope in her that it would help in getting him back. While in London she had been away from him, meaning it was easier to distract herself and forget. However once in his presence she had completely lost all power and just spent her time trying to get him back... all of which had ended up being pointless.
Goodbyes with Corey had also turned out to be strange too. He seemed more gutted that she was leaving than she had expected and Sophie wasn't exactly sure how to deal with that.
"Sophie, you're back!" One of her colleagues, Emily, called as she walked through the office doors. "What the hell have you got there?"
Sophie was rushing in late, looking in a fluster as she carried all her belongings alongside folders and a huge box. It was all balancing in her arms preparing to fall out any second.
"I had to pick up a delivery and did not expect it to be this huge." She laughed finally placing it on the table before embracing her friend in a hug.
"How was being home in Brighton? Was it nice to see everyone?"
"Yeah it was good." Sophie nodded, debating with herself whether to go into detail on what had happened. However, she decided against it. Emily was one for asking questions and she didn't want to spend time telling all when she was already late.
"Glad to be back though?"
Pausing for a moment, Sophie really thought about that point before nodding.
"Yeah it's weird because I do always miss Brighton but I actually prefer it here. I feel like a better form of myself, things always gets messy there."
"A lot of drama?" Emily probed.
"Kind of... it's just that when I'm here I get admired for the job I'm doing and the money I'm making for the company. But in Brighton I get admired for the way I look and what I can provide men with. I do shamefully use it to my advantage but it's not something to be necessarily proud about."
"Oh I don't know... I would be proud!" Emily teased, knowing what Sophie meant. "I can only count the number of guys I've been with on one hand and I still don't use up all five fingers."
"No seriously." Sophie grinned. "It's not good. I was even more horrific as a teenager."
It was weird how honest Sophie felt as though she could be around Emily. They hadn't known each other that long but they had clicked. They were polar opposites but it worked and they both came with a non-judgemental approach to their friendship.
"How bad on a scale?" Emily raised her brows.
"Put it like this..." Sophie began. "If the male population of Brighton were killed and all that was left were their bodies and no face. I would have no problem identifying most of them."
She was merely teasing but Emily was completely amused, as her eyes widened while she burst into laughter. She only knew the work side of Sophie so far so she was still trying to get her head around the other side. It was clear it would take some time to process but she was looking forward to the many nights out they would get to spend together.
...
"Did you all get the email I sent last night about the meeting?" Sophie then asked, bringing the conversation to a more serious tone when she noticed the time.
"Yeah, they're already and waiting in there." Emily grinned back. "I'm just getting drinks."
"Oh shit, I am late." Sophie laughed before grabbing her stuff and making her way down.
...
After conducting a meeting with her team for a good hour, she had then spent the rest of the day rushing around and trying to get things ready for later on that day.
She had a bunch of bosses and a collection of other people coming in to whom she had to present her and her team's idea for a new collection they had brought together over the past few months to. While a few of her team were nervous at the idea of presenting it, Sophie wasn't, at all.
She was confident not only in the work they had put into it, but also herself and was just focusing on making it perfect.
So therefore, when she walked into that room with a few of her colleagues and they had around 20 pairs of judging eyes staring back at them, she carried it off amazingly.
She presented their work with such poise that you would never have known that she had spent the past week in Brighton with her friends who had been in a terrible crash. She managed to play it off as if she had been working on this presentation for at least a month and not a matter of hours.
After hanging around to answer any questions at the end, Sophie was approached by this man in a suit. He was pretty tall but not much taller than Sophie, looked in about his fifties and had hair that was showing off some grey around the sides.
Adjusting his tie, he then placed the drink that was in his other hand on the table before holding his out to shake Sophie's.
"Samuel. It's very nice to meet you." He spoke causing Sophie to smile back.
"Sophie." She responded. "You too. Thank you for turning up."
"Women's fashion may not be my area in this business but you may have convinced me to take a career change." He teased causing Sophie to laugh along with him. "I have to rush off in a second but I just wanted to take a moment to congratulate you. That was amazing, very impressive. You can see the hard work that has been put into it."
"Thank you, so much. We believe in every item we found." Sophie responded and that was pure honesty.
They had spent the past month or so travelling to different countries, attending different shows and meeting with different designers to try and build the perfect collection. It was her first big project as a senior buyer and she had put her heart and soul into it.
With the man's assistant hovering beside Samuel, obviously trying to hint that they needed to leave, he hurried up and finished the conversation.
"Have you been invited to our events in New York?" He quickly asked to which he got a shake of the head from Sophie.
"No."
She knew what it was and what it included but it wasn't something every employee got to go to. It involved a lot of heavy business stuff alongside what seemed like a lot of high class dinning and parties.
"Well I would love for you to come so we can meet for lunch and discuss ideas. Your confidence is striking. I know you are going to go far in this company." He finished off causing Sophie's eyes to widen as she fell speechless.
There wasn't many people that could put her in this state but Samuel had successfully done that with his offer.
"Really?" Was all the words she managed to get out and as much as she knew it sounded kind of pathetic, she couldn't help herself. She was genuinely in shock and awe at the offer.
"Really." He laughed. "I'll take your number and I'll arrange something with your boss."
With that, Samuel held his hand out and Sophie immediately grabbed her phone before passing it over to him.
"Sophie wasn't it?" He asked as he copied her number into his own phone and all Sophie could do was nod while she was beaming with pure excitement.
"Great. I look forward to meeting with you. Pack for a week of fun." He responded in that dad kind of manner, causing Sophie to chuckle.
"Thank you." Was all she managed to say before he left, leaving Sophie to turn around and catch eye contact with Emily who was jumping up and down like an excitable child.
"Oh my God!" She screeched as she pulled Sophie off to the side, grabbing her arms.
"What just happened?!" Sophie covered her mouth with her hand.
"Welcome back to London Sophie Carter." Emily excelled her hand across the room. "You know it treats you much better than Brighton ever will."
/**
6 months, 1 week -
A typical Sunday morning took a sudden strange turn, when Juliet answered the door to two people she was not expecting to be approaching in the manner they had.
"Are you leaving already?" Juliet asked, looking to the suitcase in Matt's hand.
After he had been hanging around Brighton due to the drama kicking off with Jay in Vegas, Matt had been spending more time seeing the boys. Juliet wasn't sure how long it would last before he packed up and left once again but it was becoming clear that now could be that time.
"No." He responded, glimpsing over at Abbie who awkwardly smiled at Juliet.
Juliet wasn't quite sure what was happening but Matt didn't look all that pleased about what he was about to do.
"So what is with the cases then?"
"This is going to sound fucking crazy..." He began while Juliet leaned against the door, preparing herself for whatever he was about to say. "But do you happen to have a spare room for a few nights?"
Juliet looked back at Matt wide eyed as her mouth dropped open. She couldn't quite believe what she had just heard and she was waiting for the moment that he would begin to laugh and claim he was joking. However, he didn't do that.
"What?" Was all Juliet managed to say as she tried to buy herself some time to process it.
"It's fucked up but it's just for a few nights." Matt went onto say.
He was acting so casual about the whole situation while Juliet was looking back at him completely horrified.
She was heavily pregnant, living in an apartment with her boyfriend, and her ex-husband wanted to come and stay for a few nights with his girlfriend.
It was the most bizarre situation she had ever found herself in so she was still not managing to get her head around the fact that it was not a joke.
"You can't stay here, Matt." Juliet responded instantly. "That's so strange. Why would you want to do that?"
She wasn't exactly appreciative of the situation but she knew Dylan would despise of it even more. Matt had been purposely trying to get to him enough; this would kick off the storm.
"He wouldn't do this unless it was desperate." Abbie finally found her voice and spoke up, as her hand clasped Matt's arm. "We'll be gone before you know it."
Her American accent had such a calming tone to it, something that many would find quite persuasive however, even that was not going to work for Juliet.
"I don't understand why you would need to stay here? Get a hotel or something." She persisted.
"I can't get a hotel." Matt bit back yet he still didn't seem as though he was going to be open to explaining what was going on.
"Then what the hell is happening?!"
A few seconds of silence filled them all with extreme awkwardness while Juliet looked between both Abbie and Matt and waited for an explanation. Juliet knew Matt would be difficult to crack but she was hoping that Abbie would give in and she did.
"It's stuff to do with the gang. We need to be somewhere that's out the way."
Her answer was more like a pointless collection of words though, all put together to subtly explain what was going on while still leaving many questions and Juliet did still have many more.
"What gang stuff? Why does that mean you need to be here?"
Sighing and pinching the bridge of his nose, it was clear Matt's patience was running thin. He was putting it on Juliet as though she was being pathetic for not letting them stay when in actual fact he was the insane one for thinking it would be a good idea.
"My brother Michael is in Brighton with Jess' sister Jazmine." Matt began, explaining the story while keeping details to a minimum. "He knows we are here, hence why he got on a plane from Vegas. We need somewhere to stay where he won't find us and here is the best place for that."
When Matt had finished speaking no response left Juliet's mouth as she just looked back at him in shock. She couldn't quite believe what he had just proposed after everything that had happened.
They were no longer in a relationship, they barely even talked unless it was to do with the boys yet Matt wanted to drag Juliet straight back into his gang issues. It was dangerous, he knew that and he didn't seem to hold any reluctance in involving her into his mess.
"You want to hide in my apartment from your brother who probably wants you dead?" Juliet then clarified and Matt nodded his head.
"You think that will be safe for the boys?" Juliet continued to stress when she realised him acting so casual was not a joke. He was serious.
"Yeah, it will be perfectly safe." Matt then began. "My brother doesn't know where you live and he wouldn't expect me to be here anyway. It's just a few days until I can sort something else out."
When Juliet continued to look back at him reluctantly, not completely sure what she would be getting herself into, Matt continued to be as persuasive as he could.
"I wouldn't usually do this because I'd have protection, people who would have my back but Jay and I are not on good terms. I don't think he would send anyone out to keep an eye on things right now."
Matt and Jay weren't going through a good patch but it was crazy to Juliet that Matt thought he wouldn't help. Being in that gang was an instant protection whether you were arguing like little kids or not.
"Have you even tried speaking to Jay?" Juliet then went onto ask, trying to put Matt's idea in place as a last resort.
"No but he's got other shit to deal with. This won't be important right now."
"His best friend being stalked by his cruel brother won't be important?" Juliet looked back at him expectantly and Matt just shrugged his shoulders.
While the pair then just held each other's gaze in a challenging way, as though neither of them wanted to break the stare and lose, Matt then gave in as his phone began ringing.
"Look, I don't want to go to Jay for this. It might be nothing. It will just be a few nights, Juliet, and then I promise we'll be gone."
Pulling his phone from his pocket, Matt's eyes had still remained on Juliet the whole time. Scanning hers over to Abbie, she was also expressing a hopeful look and due to the heart Juliet had, meaning she was incapable of saying no, she agreed.
She knew it wasn't going to go down well with Dylan, it was the strangest situation they had found themselves in. Then to top it off, she was also only two months away from giving birth and having her ex-husband and his girlfriend being in her apartment was just going to add to the stress.
However, she couldn't stand back and argue it anymore. He asked for a couple of days and if that was all that it was going to be, she couldn't help but agree.
*
thank you for reading!! :D